


higher than the skies (somewhere in the stars)

by jjokkiri



Series: monsta x bingo (winter 2017) [34]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Angst, Astronauts, Fluff, M/M, Monsta X Bingo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-03 23:30:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12157014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjokkiri/pseuds/jjokkiri
Summary: “Can you bring me back a star?” Changkyun asked, eyes bright and his tone childish.“Yes,” he answered, “I’ll bring you back a star.”





	higher than the skies (somewhere in the stars)

**Author's Note:**

> Nearly seven months after the official end of the Winter 2017 round of Monsta X Bingo: written for the _space travel_ square of [Monsta X Bingo](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/MXbingo/profile).

At five years of age, Lee Jooheon found a fascination with the stars. Something about the twinkling lights in the sky and the fact that they were impossible to reach kept him amazed. At seven years of age, father bought Jooheon his first telescope, and Jooheon fell in love with the sky. At ten years of age, Jooheon decided that when he grew up, he wanted to finally reach the stars—fly into space and work as an astronaut.

The dream never died.

At fifteen years of age, Jooheon found a fascination with the closest thing to a star he could find on Earth—a boy two years younger than him, named Im Changkyun. At seventeen years of age, Jooheon fell in love with Changkyun. At twenty years of age, Jooheon was getting ready for a job interview to further his qualifications to apply to become an astronaut.

At twenty years of age, on the night before his interview, Jooheon dragged his boyfriend up onto his parents’ rooftop—something like what they used to do when they were so much younger. They laid on the roof and stared at the stars for hours, talking nonsense to one another and playfully joking with one another. Changkyun was the one who broke the peaceful atmosphere with a saddened light in his eyes.

“How long will you be gone for?” he asked, softly.

Jooheon managed to heave a sigh and he lowered his hand from where he was pointing at Aquarius in the sky.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “After all of the qualifications, I still have to go through all the training… and then, they have to accept me. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for… but, I’m going to say at least five years.”

Changkyun glanced at him, turning his head and pursing his lips, “I’ll be twenty-three in five years,” he replied.

Jooheon nodded, his heart hurting at the words—they’d be spending so much time apart. They were young and he hadn’t the slightest clue of if they were really willing to wait for him to come back. Right now, they loved one another more than anything, but in five years of being away from one another, there wasn’t any reassurance that nothing would change. They couldn’t tell the future, and that was the scary part.

All the best was what they hoped for, but sometimes, hopes weren’t enough—because _almost_ was never enough. And Jooheon, with all of his heart, didn’t want to lose Changkyun to anyone else. He would be selfish if Changkyun would let him, but the younger man was _young, amazing and anyone would be blessed to have someone like him._ Jooheon could hardly wrap his head around the fact that he’d gotten so lucky.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Changkyun; it wasn’t that he didn’t think that Changkyun could stay loyal to him in the five years—it was more of the thought that he was sure he could justify making Changkyun wait for him for five years, at a minimum. That wasn’t fair for someone who was perfectly capable of starting a new romance; a new life without him. Changkyun was eighteen years old and Jooheon was sure, as much as he loved Changkyun, there was someone out there that was _better._

“Stop thinking,” Changkyun said, quietly. The younger man’s hands came up to cup his cheeks. “I can hear the gears in your head turning, and they’re squeaking because you haven’t used them in forever.”

 _Leave it to Changkyun to tease him, even now._  

Jooheon flashed a grin, and then suddenly, it dropped.

“But, Kyun… what if you wait all of this time for me and then I don’t make it?” he asked, softly. “What if after all the years of hard work and trying to make my dreams come true, they decide that I’m not good enough to become one of their astronauts? What happens then?”

Changkyun shook his head, “You’re going to make it. Don’t be so worried… you know you’ll make it. You’ll make it to space, because when they meet you for the first time, they’ll love you.”

A pause and then Changkyun bit down on his lower lip, shyly, “Just like I love you.”

Jooheon could hear his heart pounding in his ears. He held his breath.

“When you finally make it, when they choose you and when you’re done with everything, you’ll come back, right?” Changkyun asked, shyly moving his hand to link his more slender fingers with Jooheon’s. The older boy nodded firmly and flashed a smile at him—the calm rushed over him. There was always something so amazingly soothing about being around Changkyun—it was one of the many reasons that he was so sure that he was _so in love._

“I will,” he answered, “I’ll come back with great discoveries for mankind and I’ll go down in history. And then, I’ll come back for you.”

A small smile spread across Changkyun’s lips. The younger boy didn’t have dreams to travel into space—he wanted to be a teacher, nothing too great of a dream, nothing too adventurous of a plan. The eighteen year old boy looked up at the stars in the night sky, staying quiet for a moment.

“What’s on your mind?” Jooheon asked, quietly. Changkyun turned to look at him with a small smile on his lips.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I just graduated high school and my boyfriend is almost done his university degree, and he’s about to apply for work so he can get the experience he needs to fly into space. A lot is on my mind.”

Jooheon glanced at him, the guilt flashing in his eyes, but he didn’t apologize—Changkyun wouldn’t want him apologizing for wanting to fulfil his dreams and travel into the unknown that was space. So, instead, he stood up on the roof and opened his arms. Following him, Changkyun got up from where he was laying down and stood in front of him with curious eyes.

The older boy tugged onto Changkyun’s wrist and pulled him into an embrace.

“We’re young and I’m sure that I love you,” he said, “And I’m also sure that won’t change, no matter how long I’m gone for.”

Changkyun smiled, biting down on his lower lip and nodding. “When I become a teacher, if you’re not back yet, I’ll tell all the kids that my boyfriend is floating somewhere in space and that he’ll come home to me soon. I feel like it might be a good fairy tale sort of thing to tell them.”

Jooheon flashed a smile, “I’ll come back to you before then. I’m sure I will.”

“Can you bring me back a star?” Changkyun asked, eyes bright and his tone childish.

Had they been around any of their other friends, then perhaps, someone would have smirked and told Changkyun to go back to school—he knew that wasn’t how it worked; he knew that one couldn’t simply pull a star from the skies and bring it back. But, they were alone, and Jooheon’s heart swelled with affection when his eyes met with Changkyun’s. In the dim light, Changkyun’s eyes seemed to shine even brighter.

Jooheon chuckled, leaning down to press a kiss against the younger man’s forehead.

“Yes,” he answered, “I’ll bring you back a star, if you’ll still let me light up your world.”

Changkyun’s lips curled into a small smile, leaning against him and wrapping his arms around the older man’s waist. Jooheon’s arms easily came to wrap around his boyfriend’s smaller body. Changkyun spoke up, “That means you’ll come back to me, right? Because you’re _my_ star?”

And if it was possible to feel the explosion of a supernova in your chest, then Jooheon was sure that was what he felt, when Changkyun smiled up at him. Jooheon nodded.

“Yes, because I’m your star.”


End file.
